The inventive concept relates to semiconductor devices capable of testing memory cells and related test methods.
One conventional approach to the testing of memory cells in a semiconductor memory device writes data to the memory cells, reads the data written to the memory cells, and then determines whether the read data is identical to the previously written data. A successful comparison of the read data and the write data verifies proper operation of the memory cells. However, given the large number of individual memory cells in contemporary memory devices, this approach can be quite time consuming. In order to reduce overall memory cell testing time and increase testing efficiency, multiple memory cells are simultaneously tested by writing, reading and comparing similar test data in relation to the memory cells.